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The photographic news
- Bandzählung
- 12.1868
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 1868
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- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
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- Bandzählung
- No. 511, June 19, 1868
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Zeitschrift
The photographic news
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Band 12.1868
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- Titelblatt Titelblatt I
- Kapitel Preface III
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- Register The Index To Volume XII 619
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Band 12.1868
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292 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [June 19, 1868. Can every description of print be made to assume either or all of the tints described ? Certainly not. The tone and brilliancy of a print depend, first, on the quality of the nega tive; second, on the working qualities of the toning bath. Here I would endeavour to correct a popular error concerning the part supposed to be performed by the gold. It is erro neously considered that the richness observable in a well- toned and vigorous print is entirely due to the precious metal deposited thereon. That the idea is incorrect may in a few words.be conclusively shown. When a painter is desirous of adding additional richness of effect to any portion of his picture, he first paints a ground-work in some colour obtru sively bright. To subdue, without entirely destroying, the ground-work so produced, he has recourse to “glazing,” which consists of a semi-transparent layer of a suitably sombre hue, which sobers down, but does not entirely destroy, the colour beneath. Now it will at once be perceived that the degree of concealment of the under-stratum of paint must depend on thesopacity of the glazing medium employed; the more transparent the medium the more brilliant the result, and vice versa; and should a strong body pigment be employed, its opacity may be such as to obli terate all traces of the ground-work. Applying the argu ments supplied by this illustration to gold toning, I must here observe that the toning bath must be regarded as a glazing medium which should subdue, but in no instance should the gold be permitted to destroy entirely, the red colour beneath. It is a noticeable fact, that the public, as a rule, prefer purple browns and blacks, because of their superior richness. These tints can never be obtained except a sufficient amount of vigour is found in the print when it is taken from the printing-frame. And a print capable of yielding a fine purple-black is capable also of receiving a sufficient body of gold to produce a black free from all warmth. A weak print, formed chiefly of middle tints, and no tint at all for the high lights, may be toned to a sepia : push for blacks, and slatiness results as the precipitate of gold varies with the amount of reduced silver that forms the picture. It is, of course, well understood that the precipi tate of gold in any degree of thickness depends on the proper construction of the gold solutions. Some toning baths are capable of destroying the most vigorous of prints, and reducing it to the extremes of miserable slatiness, whilst others cause no visible change : this last would be described as inert, the first as over-active. Allow me to state that the great fault of toning baths generally is over-activity, which causes mealiness, and leads to diversified failures. Stay! What is that abomination called mealiness ? It is the removal of such portions of reduced silver as are situate on the projecting fibre of the paper. By what agency are such portions of reduced silver destroyed ? Bleaching. From whence arises this devouring power called bleaching ? It is introduced into the toning solution with the chloride of gold. Its name ? Chlorine. Then we many simplify by stating the matter thus :— 1st. Mealiness is the removal of portions of the prints by the action of chlorine. 2nd. Chlorine accompanies the gold used by photo graphers. 3rd. Remove the cause, and the effect at once ceases. {To be continued,') HINTS ON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY. BY CHARLES E. PEARCE.* ALTHOUGH for some time past we have had art photography constantly held before our eyes, at the risk of being thought wearisome I have ventured to bring this subject again before you. I may at once state that it is not my intention to dis * Read at a meeting of the South London Photographic Society, June 11, 1868. cuss the productions of men whose works have stamped them as art photographers, and which are well known to you, but rather confine myself to some of the shortcomings, as they appear to mo, in the everyday commercially-produced pho tographs. The card mania, while it has been the cause of the stagnation at the present time, has unquestionably raised the quality of work—in a technical sense at least—to a higher standard. At the height of the fever it would have been unreasonable to expect the over-worked photographer to pay a great deal of attention to the artistic qualities of his photographs ; but now, as quality and not quantity is the one thing looked for, it behoves us to see how far we have improved since that time. The most important requisites in a good portrait are the pose, the lighting, and the background. While the posing has greatly improved, there being more variety and less dependence on conventional attitudes, and while greater attention has been paid to the lighting, and not without success—for, however photographers may disagree about the form of their studios, yet they are all of one opinion as to the result to be obtained, and at the present time a well- lighted face and figure is rather the rule than the e xception —the third requirement, the background, I cannot help thinking has been too much overloooked. Hitherto, with some exceptions, a perfectly even tint of shade, extending from both sides of the figure to the edges of the picture in one monotonous tone, has been the great desideratum of the photographer, who would sum up all its good qualities in the word “ clean but I think to this cause is due the uninteresting flatness and want of life to be seen in too many photographs. The lighting may be good, the objects composing the picture may be well arranged; but unless the composition be assisted by the background, there will be a feeling of incompleteness conveyed to the mind very detrimental to the success of the picture, and is, I believe, caused by the absence of the impression of space, which it is impossible to produce with a plain unbroken tint without gradation. As an instance of what a bald back ground can do, I would ask any one to imagine one of Salomon's pictures with a background of this kind ; instead of the gradation of shade helping to concentrate the light on the principal focus, the head, and increasing the contrast, the richness and vigour would be at once lessened, and that completeness as a picture which is one of their characteristics totally destroyed. I admit that this is one of the most difficult branches of art that the photographer has to encounter, far more than posing and lighting, and is only to be overcome by study of the great masters of portrait painting, of which, fortu nately, there are no lack of examples both in the National Gallery and at Kensington. Sir Joshua Reynolds’ opinion is well known. To a person who had told him his son was able to paint his own backgrounds, he said : “ My good friend, if he can do that he stands in no need of my instruc tion,” It is true that painters have the assistance of colour, and, by the juxtaposition of warm and cold tints, are able to increase contrast, where otherwise the effect would be flat; but the photographer has to depend upon light and shade pure and simple; and, after the light of his studio has done all it can, he must know how to assist nature by art, and be able to place masses of light or shade where needful to in crease the effect. It is this power of making these arrange ments at will which is so necessary for the photographer to acquire. . , In very light backgrounds, if the form be broken, it is possible to obtain delicacy without any effect of tameness, as may be seen in the charming productions of Edge, Notman, and others. These subjects, of course, are not suitable for every person, and, when interiors are represented, I think more would be gained if the background were darker—not heaviness, but more contrast. I think there is a certain amount of truth in the complaint very often made by the sitter to the photographer, that the face is not made
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